THE RIGHT STUFF

Black Democrat switches to Republican

'It was Democrats who defended rights of slave owners'

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.

State Sen. Elbert Guillory released a video Sunday explaining his reason for leaving the Democrats, citing their opposition to civil rights, their attitudes toward people and their desire for “control.”

He said the black community, which he invited to join him in the move, should quit exchanging self-reliance for the “allegiance of overseers” through government programs that are intended not to help people, but to control them.

He said in his video message that Democrats push a social justice and welfare aid strategy to manage citizens, not help them from poverty.

“In recent history, the Democratic Party has created the illusion that their agenda and their policies are what’s best for black people. Somehow, it has been forgotten that the Republican Party was founded in 1854 as an abolitionist movement, with one simple creed – that slavery is a violation of the rights of man,” he said.

He noted it was Republicans who pushed for the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, giving blacks citizenship, voting rights and due process.

“Democrats, on the other hand, were the party of Jim Crow. It was the Democrats who defended the rights of slave owners.”

He warned that the very foundations of the Democratic Party are faulty.

“At the heart of liberalism is the idea that only a great and powerful big government can be the benefactor of social justice for all Americans. But the left is only concerned with one thing: control. And they disguise this control as charity.”

The report also said Guillory moved into the Democratic Party in 2007, but his voting record throughout his service in office has “remained staunchly conservative.”

He expressed disappointment in his party’s positions on abortion, which Obama supports in all forms; the Second Amendment, which Obama repeatedly has tried to curb; education and immigration.

Guillory said he reached his tolerance limit when state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson said fellow lawmakers had told her they based their opposition to Obamacare on the race of the president, not policy, the newspaper said.

WND columnist Star Parker noted Guillory said Democrats “have moved away from the traditional values of most Americans. Their policies have encouraged high teen birth rates, high high school dropout rates, high incarceration rates and very high unemployment rates.”

Parker said black Americans, “like every American, need less taxes taken out of their paycheck, need to be able to choose where to send their child to school, need to be able to pick freely a health-care plan that suits their needs, and need to save for retirement instead of paying payroll taxes.”

Guillory said the movewas the “right decision, not only for me, for all my brothers and sisters in the black community.”